Thursday, 5 November 2015

Interested
in hosting a SaMnet leadership and/or SoTL workshop in your capital city in
2016? SaMnet HQ are happy to assist.

Suggest a timeframe
and area of focus. Indicate what role you would undertake - hosting,
co-facilitating, facilitating segments, etc. Guess what level of
attendance - 3 colleagues, 15 from your faculty, 35 from across the university?

We can
provide soft copies of handouts, lesson plan/run sheet for a typical workshop,
coaching on organising, advertising, running.

This forum will
see the launch of the Bioscience Education Australia Network (BEAN), the new
umbrella network combining CUBEnet and VIBEnet; as well as hosting the
Mathbench Symposium, which will launch and demonstrate the Mathbench-Australia
website.

This is an all
day workshop; more information will be made available closer to the event.

4. SaMnet activity

As we approach
the end of the calendar year, SaMnet is interested in what you have achieved
this year and what you have planned for next year.

Do you have an
initiative, project or interest to chare with the community that you would like
feedback on? Do you have any publications that you wish to disseminate to the
wider SaMnet community? Please contact us at samnetaustralia@gmail.com

5. Scholarship of Teaching
and Learning (SoTL)

Innovation
and entrepreneurship are the themes for this month’s section:

The
drive to instil innovation skills in students comes with a question – can students
actually learn how to innovate? The author suggests that while innovation cannot
be directly taught, there are other mechanisms by which we can help students
embrace innovation. What steps do you think are necessary to embrace a cultural
change towards innovation and entrepreneurship in your institution?

Entrepreneurship
and work-integrated learning are being prioritised around the world in order to
address the needs of students in changing socio-economic times. Does this
reflect the Australian environment, and how should Australian universities respond
to this changing landscape?

Note that the
ACDS is holding a forum on Work-Integrated Learning in Science on 11 December –
more information above!

Jillian Kinzie, Pat Hutchings, and
Natasha A. Jankowski, in the book, Using Evidence of Student
Learning to Improve Higher Education

Evidence of
student learning can be a powerful tool for driving institutional and national
change. The authors outlines the principles that focus assessment towards good
practice and change. How can you implement these principles in your assessment schedules?
How can you drive effective change in your institution through assessments that
contribute to overall student learning?

Retiring
professors often take with them a wealth of institutional knowledge and experience
in their disciplines. ‘Post-retirement postdocs’ are an emerging phenomenon
that seek to keep these institutional leaders contributing to the wider research
body. How would you seek to retain this vast realm of knowledge within your
research discipline? What contributions do you think are best suited to these
leaders, whether it be mentoring, research, or other contributions?

The 2015 RiAus
Postgraduate Survival Guide comes at a time when the national conversation is
focused on the way in which we can train up the next generation of STEM-skilled
graduates to take on the transition to the digital economy and contribute to
Australia’s growing knowledge economy and industry.

The SMART
Directory indexes useful websites relevant to teaching and learning in science
and mathematics, with annotated resources and a rating system indicating the
usefulness of the resources. The Directory is ready for testing, and the
developers welcome feedback and comments on the site, which is available in beta
here.

For mathematics
educators with an interest in undergraduate mathematics education for secondary
school teachers, mathematicians, academics in other discipline areas and
teachers in maths support classes, state groups have been formed to consider
state based issues, facilitate more frequent contact and encourage new members
to participate in the FYiMaths network.

The Department of Mathematics at The University of Auckland
is advertising for a Professional Teaching Fellow in Mathematics. This is
a teaching-focussed role; the position is intended for candidates with a PhD in
Mathematics, or a closely related discipline, who demonstrate a strong
commitment to excellence in the teaching of Mathematics at the undergraduate
level..Applications
close Sunday 13 December 2015.

Support for this project/activity has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views in this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.